Article
| May 25, 2017

As demand exceeds production in many European countries, meat and poultry industries are increasingly required to extract the maximum value from their products. Uniform, accurate batches are essential for profitability, and with global food safety regulations constantly evolving, high performance product inspection equipment has become indispensable for fat analysis and contamination detection.

1. Food Inspection Equipment Offers Superior Contaminant Detection

Meat and poultry products have the potential to contain physical contaminants, such as calcified bone, metal, glass, plastic and rubber, either through natural occurrence or as a result of the production process. Contaminated products can cause harm to consumers and damage brand reputations, as well as result in costly recalls.

Additionally, pipeline x-ray machines are ideal for inspecting ground chicken, chicken breast and pumped chicken. By inspecting these products at the beginning of the line, poultry processors can ensure contaminants are not present in the products which help to eliminate unscheduled downtime and prevent potential damage of equipment downstream.

3. Chemical Lean and Fat Analysis for Red Meat Inspection

In addition to offering unrivalled contamination detection, in-line fat analysis (FA) systems accurately measure the fat content or chemical lean (CL) of ground meat and trimmings. By using Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) technology, fat analysis can be provided to within +/-1 CL across a wide range of applications – from fresh and frozen, to bulk, blended and packaged meat. FA systems enable processors to verify that purchased meat is of the correct specification and accurately priced which helps to eliminate lean giveaway.

Such preciseness means that processors working to Least Cost Formulation (LCF) production strategies or specific customer recipes (such as burger patties, sausages or ready meal components) can achieve the most effective recipe targets.

5. Red Meat Production Optimization with Intelligent Software

Product inspection software has also evolved to accommodate meat industry challenges. For example, new software is able to track and display real-time production batch information for processors running meat through an FA system. Operators can see both numerical data and graphical images of the batch production run against a target recipe for a specific CL content on the user interface. This data can then be used to optimize the raw ingredients added to a batch. Furthermore, easy-to-follow instructions can be generated allowing operators to select and add the correct quantity of raw ingredient to attain a final recipe target.

Systems can also be operated in LCF mode. Based on the raw materials available, operators can choose to optimize a recipe at the click of a button. The software will calculate the LCF of raw materials available in inventory, based on composition, cost and any constraints to fulfill the recipe and product. Afterwards, the software displays the raw material details the operator must add to maximize ingredient utilization.